All Else FailedLive At The Dungeon

As the title suggests, Live At The Dungeon is a live split recording between Philadelphia's All Else Failed and Bad Luck 13 Riot Extravaganza. All Else Failed kicks off their half of the split with four tracks that suffer from the typical live imperfections (vocals too loud, instruments buried in the mix) yet shows why All Else Failed's Archetype full-length (on Now or Never) was the sleeper album of 2001 for the metallic/hardcore sect. Despite the audio shortcomings of Live At The Dungeon, All Else Failed's brand of technically brutal proficiency and emotional lamenting shines through on "Shoveleers," "The Cheap Shot Artist" and "Burster," while they absolutely tear through a reckless version of Big Black's "Bad Penny." And while the studio precision playing of Archetype is lacking, All Else Failed's power is undeniable. Bad Luck 13 Riot Extravaganza closes the split off with ten songs (although the CDs track listing has the order reversed) and clearly loses this no-holds-barred cage match to All Else Failed. Drawn from the G.G. Allin and Mentors school of offensive music, Bad Luck 13 claim to be the most violent band in music history. Which is great for them, since their music is a completely uninspired conglomeration of plodding thrash metal, rock and hardcore, and their lyrics, while meant to offend the even the hardiest of sailors, merely comes across as puerile and calculated. All Else Failed make this CD worth it, but considering the audio mud of the recording and the offensive facade of Bad Luck 13, just barely.
(Supermodel)